Richard Price is known for his crisp, realistic dialogue, and Lush Life (Picador, $15) would be a joy to read for the dialogue alone; fortunately, the story and characters are excellent too! Technically, Lush Life is a “police procedural,” but in fact it’s something of a mystery in reverse: you already know who did it—what you don’t know is how, or if, the police will figure it out. Price, who wrote for the TV series The Wire, is expert at portraying city life in all its quirky, gritty, imperfect, and sometimes even funny, glory. It’s amazing how his writing makes you feel like a fly on the walls of his characters’ lives. Best of all, though, reading Lush Life leaves you feeling as though you have spent time in a small corner of New York City you would never get to experience otherwise.
